Let the children lead the way! - Updated

Updated post - Originally posted August 2018

Last week I viewed a video about palm oil, as I was watching it our seven year old entered the room asking what it was I was watching, her younger sister was soon up from her Lego also asking what it was. Now the farming and use of palm oil is a big topic which like all big topics carries massive debates both for and against. So how do I explain this to two young children, easy I restart the video and show it to them. Let them hear the information, let them soak in the images and words and ask them at the end what they thought? Plain and simple, both state it is unfair, question what we eat with palm oil in and that we cannot buy anything with it in anymore!

Our eldest has been a vegan for about a year and a half now and is very strict when it comes to ensuring she is not consuming animal products and even checks hand washes when we are out so she can avoid any animal products. I admire her passion, she wants to change the world and I am with her all the way! Now both girls love Linda McCartney sausages for Saturday breakfast and our eldest recently began having the country pies as her Friday night chip treat tea. This week whilst shopping we sadly discovered both contain palm oil in, now  many would say it is hard to avoid it all the time and pop them into the basket because after all they are your favourite right? That doesn't happen in our house, our eldest said 'Well we wont have those anymore' plain and simple no complaints we just sourced a different treat tea and who needs sausages for weekend breakfast, waffles and beans are plenty. Our youngest said well done to her sister and that she was glad we weren't having them if they have that stuff in and they took off down the freezer isle with their heads held high!

Now what if more families, individuals of all ages were taught about what was in their food? Would the consumer demand dramatically change? Well I do believe so! As a vegan adult I hear all the time how nice the taste of meat is, how it is easier and quicker when out and how it is what we've done for years because it seems the taste, convenience and culture are clearly worth more than other animals lives to so many. Now this can change because I also hear as a parent how many children aren't keen when they discover what meat actually is. We have friends who call chickens hens if they see them out else their son will not eat his roast chicken! Come on guys, listen to the children they can see we are being unfair whether directly by eating the animal or my destroying the homes of beautiful animals leaving them to slowly die.

Education is the key to this, I was discussing dairy with my step father the other month who asked why vegans do not eat dairy products, when I explained the cruelty in separating a calf from its mother to have the milk intended for the calf and not us he told me that doesn't happen, humans only have the excess! This man is in his 60's and has no idea how the milk in his fridge has got there. This has to change! Lets educate ourselves, no matter our age. The children really are our future - it is time we listen and follow in their footsteps.

Now if after watching the video you feel inspired to help stop this awful industry please scroll down the page and under the video you will be able to sign the petition, spread the word!

Updated 2020 - As a family we were delighted to see our favourites now labelled as 'New Palm Oil Free recipe.' Fantastic to see more companies heading either palm oil free or using only sustainable palm oil!  

Human Rights Activist Disrupts Vegan Event - Earthling Ed

This video says so much and I believe it needs to be shared and viewed by as many people as possible. I love that Earthling Ed stays calm and that what begins as a very aggressive interaction becomes a beautiful, educating discussion for both men involved.

Birthday Time

So this weekend has been my birthday and you'll be happy to know I am still not bothered by my age and feel even more inspired to grow and develop as a person, experiencing all I can from this beautiful world.

I still do not understand the saying that school days are the best of your life because, well for me they most definitely not, plain and simple. My life has got better and better since my mid twenties and a great deal of that has been down to self acceptance and being true to myself. Exploring what interests me, living the life in which I want to lead. Yes not everyone agrees but you know they've come to terms pretty quickly and I've even been told over the last two years by family members that they don't 'get it', they couldn't do it but that it obviously works for me! I think you need to hit the year mark for many to see it isn't a fad, it is really you!

So birthday weekend has been spent eating lots of vegan yummy food, watching films with my beautiful family and well eating more yummy vegan food of course. What else are birthdays for! The best gifts in the world bless my life every day and I need nothing more! 

Oh and our yummy vegan lunch was from Samphire Brasserie, well worth the drive for meatball burger and hazelnut and chocolate tart with ice cream - tough life being a vegan right?

Why are you vegan?

A massive topic, I feel very passionate about and I get asked it quite often. When new people come into my life soon enough food is either offered or I get asked if I have tried the new restaurant or food product promoted. It is just as common as being asked if you saw the programme on television last night which naturally leads to people asking why we don't have a television!

My reason for being a vegan is simple, I love animals. I admit that I truly struggle to understand how anyone can eat the dead body of another being. There you go plain and simple nothing fancy about it, if the meal offered has ever had a beating heart I cannot bring myself to eat it. I do not see a lovely steak with buttery mushrooms I see a part of a dead body on a plate which I do not want to eat.

I cannot understand how people can cuddle up to their cats of an evening on the sofa showing love and affection whilst they have had chicken casserole for tea. I see no difference between the life of a cat and the life of a chicken.

When social media goes mad as a zoo or hunter has killed a gorilla, lion or zebra for example I get annoyed knowing three quarters of my friends who are out raged by this one death eat the flesh of hundreds of animals each and every year without any thought of the animals right to life. I cannot see the sense in this and oh my the people who call themselves 'animals lovers' well how can this be?

Now the next part always goes along the lines of, 'Well an animal isn't killed for milk?', no there isn't flesh of an animal in milk and milk products but lets put it this way - How would people react if I bottled my breast milk and fed it to my dog? If I kept having babies but instead of feeding my babies fed my dog? Would that be seen as 'normal' because like it or not that is what we are doing, drinking another animals breast milk. That's without looking into the fact calves are taken from their mothers for us to have that milk, that the cows are impregnated over and over again each time after the physical stress they then grieve for their child taken from them on a constant loop until it is seen they are too old to produce so they are killed for their flesh. All so we can have some milk, cream and cheese when there are plenty of other ways of making such products.

Just think about that for a moment. Truly see what is on your plate, is taste worth more than a life?